Incredible Video Captures Moment Washington Monument Was Struck By Lightning

The Washington Monument was struck by lightning on Saturday evening.

The incredible scene was captured live on a bystanders video.

Gasps could be heard in the footage from people who witnessed it.

From 2010 to 2019, the Washington Monument has averaged being struck by lightning between once every five years and twice per year.

The monument, which is 555 feet tall and made from white marble, was also struck in June of 2020 and in June of this year.

It is currently unclear if there was any damage to the iconic structure.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/08/watch-incredible-video-captures-moment-washington-monument-struck-lightning/

=Georgia Fulton County Elections Chief Ralph Jones Resigns – He Ran the Late Night Ballot Dump Operation in Atlanta

Ralph Jones resigned from his Election position in Fulton County on Friday.

According to 11Alive:

Jones was one of the county officials onsite at State Farm Arena on Election Night, as the counting of ballots continued past midnight.

Those hours became a fixation of the Trump campaign’s efforts to discredit Fulton County’s handling of the election. In his position, Jones became a target of the former president’s supporters who sought to prove an Election Night conspiracy at the arena.

Back in early December we first learned the name of the individual who told election workers to go home on Election night so he and some hand-picked workers could pull ballots out from under tables and jam thousands of Biden-only ballots through tabulation machines.

A short time later, the CFO of the Secretary of State’s office, Gabe Sterling, claimed that nothing was out of the normal in Fulton County on Election Night. Sterling lied in an interview with Newsmax and said that there was an election poll watcher in Fulton County when they were jamming thousands of ballots into voting tabulation machines on election night. This poll watcher, Sterling said was Ralph Jones. But this was a lie because Jones worked for Sterling and the elections department of Fulton County. Jones was not an independent observer. Jones also was pushing thousands of ballots through the tabulation machines himself on Election Night.

Gabe Sterling and Secretary of State Raffensperger were lying. The actions in Fulton County on Election Night were criminal.

Raffensperger and his gang were notified of the ballot stuffing in Fulton County on Election Night and they did nothing. They tried to cover it up.

Anyone who committed crimes in Georgia in the 2020 Election should be in jail. This starts with the corrupt Governor Kemp and his CFO Sterling and everyone else they covered up for and lied about. They all should be in jail. Are there any law enforcement personnel in Georgia who enforce the law?

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/08/georgia-fulton-county-elections-chief-ralph-jones-resigns-ran-late-night-ballot-dump-operation-atlanta/

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Office Scolded Ashli Babbitt’s Grieving Mother, ‘Your Daughter Should Not Have Stormed the Capitol’

The grieving mother of Ashli Babbitt has revealed that an aide to Senator Dianne Feinstein scolded her saying, “your daughter should not have stormed the Capitol,” when she called in an attempt to get more information about her death.

Babbitt’s mother, Micki Witthoeft detailed her awful experience with Feinstein’s office during an interview with Dinesh D’Souza this week.

Witthoeft said that the first time she called the office, the staffer who answered pretended not to know who Babbitt was.

The next time she called, the aide scolded her for her daughter’s actions and snapped, “Dianne Feinstein will never have two minutes for you.”

“Dianne Feinstein’s people were just awful,” Witthoeft said.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/08/sen-dianne-feinsteins-office-scolded-ashli-babbitts-grieving-mother-daughter-not-stormed-capitol/

Biden Admin Ordered All American Flags Destroyed at US Embassy in Kabul

The Biden administration ordered the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to destroy all American flags before they depart.

An internal memo obtained by the Washington Post, titled “Emergency Destruction Services at the Garrison,” was directed to “All American Personnel.”

The memo instructed staff to destroy classified documents and equipment as well as dispose of “American flags… which could be misused in propaganda efforts” using incinerators, disintegrators and “burn bins.”

Biden has ordered an additional 5,000 U.S. troops to head to Afghanistan as the chaos unfolds.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/08/biden-admin-ordered-american-flags-destroyed-us-embassy-kabul/

Jeffrey Epstein’s Former Employee ‘Ready and Willing’ to Testify Against Prince Andrew

A former employee of Jeffrey Epstein is reportedly “ready and willing” to testify against Prince Andrew in a sexual assault lawsuit brought on by Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

Steve Scully, who was employed by Epstein for six years, is willing to testify about what he saw in the Manhattan Federal Court case.

According to a report from The Sun, Scully says he saw Prince Andrew kissing and grinding against a bikini-clad Giuffre by a pool between 2001 and 2004.

“I was working on the phone and he (Andrew) was by the pool with Virginia. As soon as I saw him, I recognised him,” Scully told the Sun. “I thought, ‘If I had a camera in my bag right now, I’d have a $50,000 picture’.”

The former employee told the paper that they were “bumping and grinding” for several minutes before lying on lounge chairs by the pool.

Scully said he was “struck” by how young the girl was — but he apparently did nothing to intervene.

“She stood like a kid would stand behind a parent,” he said, adding “Andrew’s protecting himself and his family.”

The telecom specialist said that if Giuffre’s lawyers call he will give a deposition under oath.

“If Virginia’s lawyers call, I will definitely speak to them and I would give a deposition under oath telling them what I saw,” Scully continued. “The nice thing about the truth is that it doesn’t change!”

“There’s no question in my mind that I saw Prince Andrew and Virginia together and no question that he would remember the incident either,” Scully said. “He should come clean.”

Giuffre has long claimed that Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her in New York, London and on Epstein’s “pedo island” when she was 17.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/08/jeffrey-epsteins-former-employee-ready-willing-testify-prince-andrew/

Iowa and Sheboygan GOP Executive Committees Add Their Counties to Rapidly Growing List of Wisconsin County GOP Leaders Calling for Forensic Audit

Add Iowa and Sheboygan Counties to the list!!

From the Wisconsing Cyber Audit Ad Hoc Committee—–

Wisconsin Full Forensic Cyber Audit Ad Hoc Committee

Press Release

August 14, 2021

Menomonee Falls – As a follow-up to the highly successful August 6th “Rise Up Wisconsin Rally” in favor of a full forensic cyber audit of the November 3, 2020 Election (www.riseupwisconsin.com) held at the State Capitol in Madison, an Ad-hoc Committee of various individuals, political party members and organizations committed to rooting out election fraud and standing for election integrity for all political affiliations in Wisconsin, asked for and received an Emergency Meeting with Representative Janel Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls) and Tim Ramthun’s Office Staff (R-Campbellsport) on August 12, 2021 to show their support of the Representatives who have called for a full forensic cyber audit of the November 3, 2020 Election.

Items discussed at the meeting with the Representatives involving the full forensic cyber audit included, but weren’t limited to, the funding of the audit, the scope of the audit and getting legislative approval of the audit to move the process forward as quickly and efficiently as possible at no cost to Wisconsin Taxpayers to ensure election fraud will never happen again and to protect the integrity of the election box for all Wisconsin voters.

One of the components and take aways from the meeting included an immediate 72-County GOP effort, launched by the Ad-hoc Committee, to inform as many Wisconsinites as possible to contact their Legislative Representative to strongly encourage Speaker Vos (R-Rochester) and or Senator LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) to sign off on Representative Brandtjen’s, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections, subpoenas of Brown and Milwaukee Counties that were served on August 6th that included a 30-day response requirement. In spite of the determination of Governor Evers to do everything he can to squash and quell any chances of ever getting to the truth of rampant and undeniable election fraud with the November 3, 2020 Election said, when asked by a reporter at last week’s press conference, “Hell no…” if clerks should comply with Representative Brandtjen’s August 6th subpoenas (Wisconsin governor vetoes GOP bills to restrict absentees (apnews.com) Associated Press, August 10, 2021).

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/08/iowa-sheboygan-gop-executive-committees-add-counties-rapidly-growing-list-wisconsin-county-gop-leaders-calling-forensic-audit/

'Named & Shamed' - IRS Lists The Record Number Of Wealthy Americans Becoming Ex-Americans In 2020

The number of wealthy Americans with assets over $2 million who renounced their citizenship has surged amid socioeconomic despair, political firestorms, and an unrelenting virus pandemic sparking increasingly freedom-destroying mandates from the 'petty tyrants' - as Rand Paul described them - in Washington.

Earlier this year, we noted 6,705 Americans gave up their citizenship in 2020, a 260% increase from 2019 when 2,577 renounced their citizenship. People fleeing the country tend to have the economic mobility to do so and seek tax haven countries. They also seek areas that are safer (free of social unrest) and have more freedoms.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/named-shamed-irs-lists-record-number-wealthy-americans-becoming-ex-americans-2020

The Mysterious $4 Billion Kazakhstan-Based Brokerage Behind An Opaque Hedge Fund's 500% Returns

Just your average, run-of-the-mill, hedge-fund-investing-in-a-brokerage-based-in-Kazakhstan returning 500% story. We know, the newswires are flooded with them, and you're tired of hearing about them, right?

That, of course, is sarcasm.

But for the part about returning 500% based on the operations of what some would call an opaque overseas entity. And it's all because of a mysterious and obscure brokerage called Freedom Holding Corporation, which purports to provide "retail securities brokerage, research, investment counseling, securities trading, market making, corporate investment banking, and underwriting services". Among those services, it claims to open up access to U.S. markets to people overseas.

Freedom claims it is even able to get its hands on hot U.S. IPO listings, according to a Bloomberg look into the company.

Russian billionaire Timur Turlov, who is 33 years old and listed as Freedom's CEO and Chairman, told Bloomberg: “We remain one of the few floodgates to the Western market for customers from our region.”

And the hedge fund posting the incredible returns runs through Belize and is "personally controlled" by Turlov. The fund's connections across Wall Street has "secured access to hot new stocks in America" and is allowing Russians, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Ukrainians to have access to U.S. IPOs, Turlov says.

The arrangement is being done in a manner where the more shares of Freedom that Turlov's customers buy, the more exposure to U.S. listed IPO's they get

Freedom claims to have given its clients access to more than 100 U.S. IPO's, including Airbnb and Bumble.

Turlov explained that he gets in on the names through "an affiliate of a hedge fund that buys the shares from underwriters and passes them along". Of course, Bloomberg continued to note, that firm's identity is "confidential" and doesn't appear in SEC filings.

Reena Aggarwal, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Financial Markets & Policy, told Bloomberg she had "never seen" anything like the arrangement.

Freedom's IPO business is a "marginal" part of the business, Turlov told Bloomberg. Its pre-tax profit was up about 6x in the FY ending March 31, 2021, to $173 million. The brokerage says it has 290,000 customer accounts - a large number for a small region.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/mysterious-4-billion-kazakhstan-based-brokerage-behind-mysterious-hedge-funds-500-returns

President Ghani leaves Afghanistan, top official confirms, as US-backed govt relinquishes power to Taliban

President Ashraf Ghani has left Afghanistan, paving the way for the Taliban to take control of the country after the militant group marched on Kabul, senior official Abdullah Abdullah has confirmed.

Ghani fled the Afghan capital on Sunday, following a stunning Taliban offensive that ended at the gates of Kabul. Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, said that “he left Afghanistan in a hard time, God hold him accountable.”

The militants called for negotiations, after claiming they wanted to avoid a battle that could cost civilian lives. The president left the country accompanied by his “close aides,” TOLO, an Afghan news channel, reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

A source told Russia’s RIA-Novosti news agency that Ghani had fled to Tajikistan and would soon travel from there to a third country.

https://www.rt.com/news/532104-ghani-left-afghanistan/

Dominic Raab was ON HOLIDAY as Taliban encircled Afghan capital, reports say, while UK Ambassador said to be remaining in Kabul

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was on vacation as the Taliban closed in on Kabul, British media reports. Raab has been forced to wrap up his holidays, as PM Boris Johnson has called an urgent meeting on events in Afghanistan.

Raab flew back to Britain on Sunday, days after it became clear that the situation on the ground in Afghanistan was rapidly evolving and the fall of Kabul was only a matter of time. Taliban militants entered the country’s capital on Sunday, while Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

It was not immediately clear where the top UK diplomat was vacationing while the pro-Western Afghan government effectively fell apart. The Foreign Office refused to disclose the minister’s holiday destination to media.

At the same time, the diplomatic service said that the British envoy in Afghanistan was at his working place and the mission continues to operate.

“We have reduced our diplomatic presence in response to the situation on the ground, but our Ambassador remains in Kabul and UK Government staff continue to work to provide assistance to British nationals and to our Afghan staff,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said.

The mission was said to be staying put at its Kabul compound, even as the US embassy staff had already been airlifted to the city’s airport. The French foreign ministry said that its mission will be relocated closer to the airport as well.

The Taliban’s flash offensive has apparently spoiled vacations not just for Raab; the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has scrambled an urgent COBRA meeting to assess the Afghanistan situation. The Civil Contingencies Committee is usually convened over matters of national security or major disruptions, with ministers and senior officials from various government bodies in attendance.

Johnson also asked UK lawmakers to cut short their vacations, recalling Parliament from its summer recess over the Afghan crisis.

Speaking later on Sunday, Johnson said that it was very clear that a “new government” will emerge in Kabul shortly. At the same time, he urged other countries to abstain from recognising the Taliban as the new rulers of Afghanistan.

“We don’t want anybody bilaterally recognising the Taliban,” Johnson stated. “We want a united position amongst all the like-minded, as far as we can get one.”

The PM also said the UK government is working to get British nationals out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. London has means to do so over the next few days, Johnson said.

https://www.rt.com/uk/532113-dominic-raab-afghanistan-holiday/

Hundreds gather for 'Freedom Rally' at Oklahoma state Capitol to protest vaccine mandates

Hundreds of people gathered for a "Freedom Rally" at the Oklahoma state Capitol on Saturday afternoon to protest mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

The "Oklahoma Freedom Rally" kicked off at 3 p.m., and hundreds of peaceful demonstrators showed up, vowing to "not bow to tyranny." Some protesters were holding anti-vaccine mandate signs that read: "No vaccine mandate," "Mandate medical freedom," and "Protect our freedom."

Patriotic Oklahomans made their way into the Capitol rotunda, where they recited the pledge of allegiance, sang "America the Beautiful," and chanted, "USA! USA! USA!"

https://www.theblaze.com/news/oklahoma-rally-vaccine-mandates-protest-capitol

Tennessee Seizes Thousands of Counterfeit COVID-19 Vaccination Cards Shipped From China

Over 3,000 fake COVID-19 vaccination cards from China have been seized in Memphis, Tennessee en route to other cities in the United States.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) caught a shipment from Shenzhen, China to New Orleans, Louisiana, which contained 51 blank counterfeit vaccination cards, CBP said in a press release on Aug. 13. “It was the 15th such shipment of the night,” they said.

The FBI warned on March 30 that buying, selling, or using a counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards is a crime, and violators will face a fine and up to five years in prison.

The White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients also warned on Aug. 13 that it is “a crime” to falsify COVID-19 vaccination cards, amid new restrictions handed down by several major cities.

After New York City announced it would mandate vaccine passports at certain businesses starting next month, and a growing number of colleges and universities across the country are requiring vaccination for students to attend in-person classes, there has been a surge in fake vaccination cards.

https://www.ntd.com/tennessee-seizes-thousands-of-counterfeit-covid-19-vaccination-cards-shipped-from-china_660858.html

Chinese Police Detain Two in Alibaba Sexual Assault Case

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Two men were detained Saturday on suspicion of sexual assault in a case that shook Alibaba Group, the world’s biggest e-commerce company, Chinese police announced.

The men, identified by the surnames Wang and Zhang, were suspected of the crime of “forcible molestation,” police in the eastern city of Jinan said in a statement. It said they were under “coercive measures,” a euphemism for detention.

There was no evidence to indicate the men committed rape, a different charge under Chinese law, the police statement said.

Alibaba was shaken last week after a female employee’s complaint on an internal company website that she was sexually assaulted by a manager surnamed Wang became public. The woman complained Alibaba failed to act after she reported the incident to its human resources department.

The woman, surnamed Zhou, had flown into Jinan on July 27, the police statement said. That night and the following morning, she was reportedly assaulted by Wang and Zhang.

Zhou reported the assaults to Jinan police the same day after having checked out from the hotel. On July 29, the day after, police in Jinan said they had to extend the review period another 30 days before they could formally file a case, owing to its complexity.

After Zhou went public with her accusations and her story went viral, the police listed her case formally in the system as a sexual assault case.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Women in China face a very steep uphill battle in trying to get justice for any form of sexual violence. Whether it’s sexual harassment or rape, victims often face the burden of evidence in court.

“It’s hard for many victims to win a sexual assault case in court,” Li Ying, a lawyer and director of the Yuanzhong Gender Development Center, told state-owned China Daily. “Even if the victims have the evidence, they have to prove the perpetrator acted against their will.”

Still, some have been heartened, after a limited #MeToo movement emerged in China in 2018. Then, young women went public with accusations against the men who had assaulted or harassed them, opening up the public conversation in a way that had not been seen before.

However, the movement faced a tremendous amount of pressure from local and central authorities, as well as extensive censorship, and was obstructed.

In response to the #MeToo movement, China codified sexual harassment in its civil code last year, but did little to lay out guidelines for enforcement. While the law provides protection for women against any form of sexual violence, enforcement remains difficult.

https://www.ntd.com/chinese-police-detain-two-in-alibaba-sexual-assault-case_660728.html

Freedom Protesters Take It To The Streets In Montreal AGAINST Vaccine Passports

Our Neighbors To The North Stand With American Patriots In Solidarity Saturday In The Pursuit of Freedom

Freedom protesters marched in the streets of Montreal, Canada on Saturday as worldwide protests appear all over the planet against vaccine passports. The Freedom protesters derived massive numbers, as evidenced by video footage of the streets of Montreal. The freedom protesters are joined in solidarity Saturday by Freedom protesters who stand against vaccine mandates at the Oklahoma City state capitol on Lincoln Boulevard in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Similar Freedom demonstrations continued in London, England and Paris, France, a historical sister city to Montreal. In Paris, Freedom protesters are actually setting up their own cafe bistros with food and supplies so as to avoid patronizing the restaurants that enforce the vaccine passport.

https://nationalfile.com/freedom-protesters-take-it-to-the-streets-in-montreal-against-vaccine-passports/

>>14360144

where is everybody?